KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Chapter Ten

Arrain and the other men had heard the roaring and bellowing from the stoma.  It was a large predatory sound that sent a shiver of horror down his spine.  The realization that he had sent his son and the other boys out into the dark with that thing jolted him to his feet and sent him and the other men running unarmed back to the village's common area.  They arrived just as the fight ended and gaped at their sons holding bloody spears and standing in a circle of dead wolves, gasping for breath. 

Noticing the two boys lying on the ground, Naipho rushed over.  "It's Garick and Somek," he said as Arrain joined him.  "Get Anzell and Tolma."

Somek was unconscious but breathing.  Garick was conscious, but had lost a lot of blood.

"Get them both to Mahd Mela," Naipho ordered as the other men picked them up.

Arrain turned on Karux.  "What happened here?"

Amantis angrily stomped toward them.  "We came back to the korion and that thing appeared."

"Angoran," Karux offered.

"What?"

"They're called angorym—angoran if there's just one."

"Fine.  That angoran," Amantis snapped, turning back to Arrain," loosed his wolves on us.  We fought the wolves, then we fought the angoran."

Arrain scanned the field of battle, his eyes lingering on the snow soaked in Garick's blood.  "And did it not occur to any of you to run away?"

"It loosed the drwg as soon as it saw us," Karux said.  "If we had tried to run, they would have pulled us all down.  None of us would have survived."

Arrain watched the men turn the monster over on its back.  It still had two spears lodged in its torso.  Its body was much like a man's, only larger and more heavily muscled.  It had a wide mouth with large canine teeth and a wide flat nose.  Its yellow eyes, glazed in death, lurked beneath a heavy brow ridge.

"You are lucky any of you survived as it is," Arrain said.

No," Amantis said.  "It wasn't luck.  It was preparation.  And if we'd had a little support, maybe Somek and Garick would be standing here with us now."

"Now wait a minute—"

"Karux has been trying to warn you for mahts."

"Is that true?" Arrain asked.  "Did you foresee this?"

"Sort of.  I saw Garick fall."

Amantis threw a questioning glance at him.

"And you didn't tell anyone?" Arrain asked.

"Would you have believed me?  Did anyone listen?  No one wants to hear about my visions.  I'd even begun to doubt them myself."

"Arrain, it's too cold to stay out here," Naipho called out as he and the remaining men dragged the bodies away.  "We're going to put these in Ghett's barn for now."

Amantis stepped up next to Karux. "This is not over either.  He's had other visions as well, much much worse ones."

Arrain didn't say anything.  He just gave Karux a questioning look.

Karux nodded.

-=====|==

The elders declared a feast on the following day.  Somek had recovered and was showing off the large knot on the side of his head where the Angoran had struck him.  Karux, Macander and Bazma were sitting with Garick who lay on a pallet in his house.  Mahd Mela had managed to stop the bleeding and, though he looked frighteningly pale and weak, he seemed in good spirits.